When the mafia extorts money from you to allow you to live, they call it "protection money." When the government does it, they call it "consumer protection." Either way, you are paying for protection from someone who has the power to take everything you have.

Wednesday, October 30, 2013

I have not been able to write a post for five weeks because of the time I have had to spend getting my newest novel, The Force, co-written with Joyce Swann, edited and published. The marketing for The Force touts that it is the "best scary Christian fiction book of the year"--a description which I believe is very accurate. But today, I turn from a futuristic scary tale of population control and genetic engineering to real life scariness.

This marks the fourth annual edition of "Do you want to see something really scary?" The recurring title of this post is, of course, a tribute to Twilight Zone--the movie. I did not see it--my mother was extremely strict and never allowed us to watch horror movies or even light comedy containing anything that smacked of the occult. But I remember my father coming back from a trip and telling us that he had been driving with his nephew on a dark, wood-lined road when his nephew told about the scene from Twilight Zone where a set of characters are in a car at night trying to scare each other. Finally, one of them says to the driver of the car, "Do you want to see something really scary?" When his friend agrees, he turns his face away, and when he turns back he has become a monster who kills the young man who is driving.

The year 2013 has seen its share of scandals and problems--revelations of massive NSA spying on millions of Americans as well as millions of non U.S. citizens living in other countries, hearings that went nowhere on the Benghazi scandal, revelations that the IRS was deliberately harassing conservative groups prior to the 2012 elections, and of course, the epic joint failures of the Obamacare website and reports that millions of Americans will lose their health insurance plans after being promised by POTUS that "if you like your health coverage you can keep it." For scariness, it would be hard to pick a favorite out of this monstrous mix, but what really stands out is the White House's response to every one of these revelations. If Jay Carney and Barack Obama are to be believed, the president has absolutely no idea of what is going on in his own Administration. It turns out that he finds out what is happening in America the same way the rest of us do--by seeing it on the nightly news. No wonder everything is in such a mess!

To drive this point home, MSNBC--a news outlet so left-learning that if you looked up the phrase "liberal media" in the dictionary you would find their logo as an illustration--has compiled a montage of Barack Obama and Jay Carney insisting that the president did not know about any of the problems in his administration before the nightly news reported them. (The only thing more noteworthy than Obama's shameless admissions that he is apparently clueless about all of the activities of his own Administration is that his most fervent supporters in the mainstream media are now starting to turn on him.) You can watch the clip here:

If Obama actually does not know anything that is happening in the Administration before it is reported to news media outlets, that begs the question, "Who is actually running the country?" I realize that Obama did not have a lot of executive experience before being elected POTUS--in fact, his experience appears to have been limited mainly to running his own campaign--but even he must understand that the job of the executive branch is to manage the country. Obama spends so much time campaigning for what he wants that he does not understand that the implementation phase is always more critical than the sales phase--and infinitely more difficult. After all, I can tell you anything and I may be able to convince you that what I am saying is true, but the real question is whether I can deliver on my promises. Last week, National Review's Jonah Goldberg wrote an excellent article titled King Obama about this dichotomy in the Obama Administration between his salesmanship and his actual delivery on his promises. (The G-file is a free newsletter from National Review which you can get to your inbox every Friday by subscribinghere.)

The question is worth repeating, if Obama is just the front man who goes out and makes great speeches and rallies the country, then who is the real executive? Whom do we blame for all of these failures? Who is actually accountable? And why is an unelected, nameless, faceless individual actually running the nation? It's a scary question.

The second possibility is that Obama is not learning of these fiascoes on the nightly news with the rest of us; he has been briefed well ahead of time, but he does not care enough to deal with any of the issues facing the country. Just as important, he does not have any qualms about repeatedly lying to the American people by using the worst excuse imaginable--that he is too inept to be president. Such a lie shows not only a blatant disregard for the truth, but an extreme disrespect for the nation that elected him president twice. He does not take the job America hired him to do seriously enough to even admit that it is his job. "I didn't know what was happening" is a perfectly acceptable excuse for failure from a man who never admits that he should have known what was going on, should have been supervising the IRS commissioner, should have logged onto the signature website for his Administration to see what all Americans would see, should have made sure the ambassador and the four Americans who died at Benghazi were rescued. By using, "this is the first I've heard about it" as an excuse, he is telling the American people that we are not important enough for him to get up each day and do his job. That's scary too.

We have not seen the last of the scandals; an Administration this mismanaged can only sink further and further into failure. But all Americans, regardless of political party, should be gravely concerned that we have a leader who either doesn't care enough to find out what is going on, or doesn't respect us enough to give us a straight answer when asked about the failures. It's pretty scary stuff.

Alexandra Swann's novel, The Planner, about an out of control, environmentally-driven federal government implementing Agenda 21, is available on Kindle and in paperback. For more information, visit her website at http://www.frontier2000.net.Download The Force free on Kindle through November 2, 2013.

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About Me

In 1986, Alexandra Swann graduated at fifteen years of age with a bachelor’s degree in liberal arts from Brigham Young University and a GPA of 3.85. The following year, when she was sixteen, she received a Master’s Degree in History from California State University. After graduation, she taught history and English as a second language for four years at El Paso Community College. In 1989, her book, No Regrets: How Homeschooling Earned Me a Master's Degree at Age Sixteen, was published, in which she details her experiences with homeschooling. In 1993, the Swann Family was featured in the CBS Television Series, “How’d They Do That?”They were the subject of articles in The National Enquirer and Woman’s World, and were featured on Paul Harvey’s radio broadcast.

For fifteen years, from 1998- 2013, Alexandra was self-employed in the financial services industry in El Paso, Texas. As a small business owner who was active in the community and on various civic boards, she learned first-hand the challenges that excessive regulations create for small businesses. In 2012 she received the SBA’s Regional Minority Small Business Champion of the Year award.

In 2010, Alexandra and her mother incorporated Frontier 2000 Media Group to produce clean, wholesome, inspirational entertainment for families.She re-released No Regrets with a new foreword to the twentieth anniversary edition of the book updating readers on what her family is doing today. She is also co-author of four novels including The Fourth Kingdomwhich was selected as one of four finalists in the Christianity Today 2011 Christian Fiction Book Awards. Her solo novel, The Planner about the dangerous consequences of progressive big government and Agenda 21, was released in June of 2012. For more information visit her website at http://www.frontier2000.net